The Long Review: Gaggle Is Budding

The Long Review: Gaggle Is Budding

Article excerpt

Gaggle has taken root and is growing here at James Weldon Johnson College Prep Middle School. As spring approaches, we are very busy getting our students ready for the FCAT state testing exams. So much of the students' and faculty's time is spent on last-minute preparations. Parts of these tests are done online so the time students have spent with Gaggle has been a good background for this preparation. Since our spring break occurred at the end of March, we especially didn't want our students to zero down during their time away from class. I sent out a reminder to all faculty members to share with them that a good way of helping students over the break was to send them reminders and reviews through Gaggle.

I have been using the Gaggle discussion boards to start some of the topics that I will be bringing into the classroom for further development in the next quarter. This helps my students to start thinking about real-world situations and see how other class members feel about the same topics. During the last quarter, I taught my students to use the skills that they learned from challenge-based and problem-based learning to explore possible ways to solve real-world problems. These situations range from sustaining the environment to developing a brain user's guide.

Another positive advantage of our Gaggle adventure is that it encourages our students to actively use their email accounts. In class, when we need to register for Web 2.0 tools, they can use their Gaggle email accounts without compromising their home accounts. …